Friday, August 31, 2012

When I got out of the Navy In 1989, I looked into teaching, as I had been a teacher through several stints in the Navy and was very good at it, and owed everything to a handful of teachers I'd run into along the way in k-12.

I quickly figured out that no matter how much you liked teaching, teaching in public schools was absurdly masochistic and unrewarding, kind of like the worst parts of the military ("it doesn't make sense, it's just our policy") only with the best parts removed, and at ridiculously low pay and zero prestige, and with the only opportunity for advancement being to leave the classroom.

The bottom line is that teaching, nursing, and social work were and essentially remain women's professions, which means that we used to cream the best of them because there were such limits on opportunities in other fields, even as we paid jack (note which three major professions require unpaid internships -- while paying tuition-- as a matter of course). As other fields opened up to women, the cream left in droves, and the salary scales have never adjusted, because we just fill from the bottom of the barrel.

Given the lack of respect that teachers get and the abysmal job of "parenting" so many folks do (while holding insane expectations for what the teachers are supposed to do, despite total nonsupport from those same folks), the question I have isn't how to get more good teachers, it's whether the demolition of the public schools isn't intentional on the part of the GOPsters, just another public good to be destroyed in order to create another profit center for business.

LOVESalem

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WORD

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us." (Henrik Tikkanen)

"Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends." (Lewis Mumford)Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

If you are thinking a year ahead, plant seeds. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it’s my responsibility to make it better. (Gov. Tom McCall)

Why This Blog?

Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.

The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.

The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.

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